In Love by Christmas: A Paranormal Romance (30 page)

38

Different than Anyone Imagined

D
inner was a
little different than the aristocratic, formal banquet Dashiell Pondichury had planned to celebrate his victory. The rough Scots and Irish polo players sat at the grand banquet table, thrilled to see the tables turned, quite literally. Lady Arabella, Leroy, and more representatives of Her Majesty’s various investigative and enforcement agencies than most people knew existed completed the company in the dining room.

Peter Faxmore, Lord of Ballentyne, and his wife, Her Grace Violetta, the Duchess of Raddenbery and Cloudfill, sat in the morning room, eating at the breakfast table, surrounded by people from National Health. Their son Allie joined them. He had made the mistake of trying to bite the woman in the rumpled suit.

Leroy sat at the head of the “grown-ups table” in his tailcoat and white tie. Why not? The table resembled the runway for a small jet, if one could be set with blazing candelabras, flowers, and sterling silver. The staff served the grand dinner Dash’s culinary crew had been working on for days. Leroy blessed the food, getting rid of any demonic residue.

Fulton had seated him at the head of the table, with Arabella to his right. The arrangement caused Leroy great discomfort. He had once liked His Lordship and Her Grace. He had no desire to usurp their places. He could repair them partially, but given that their staying out of jail depended upon their dementia, he thought the Ancestors would forgive him passing up a healing this one time.

He knew his silverware and glasses, and how to make polite conversation better than anyone but the Ballentyne family, but etiquette wasn’t the problem at this get-together. It was Arabella and his clothes. He had heard that men who had been in battle often wanted sex desperately. They raped women because of their overwhelming desire. Leroy had been embattled all day. He would never rape, but his skin screamed for her touch. His lips throbbed and fingers pulsed. He wanted her to rip off his clothing and do the same to her.

Something had become very clear to him: whatever he once had thought was going to happen with Cass was off. The world had tilted.

Arabella leaned toward him, her pretty face and tinted lips smiling. She was sad, but the soft silk dress she wore rippled and revealed. But never revealed too much. She was a lady.

Everyone accepted Leroy at the head of the table and family. His unfortunate skin color was forgiven, or unnoticed.

“I’ve never seen it rain like this. Like it’s been holding off for months.” The group kept looking out the windows at the downpour. The wind was blowing so hard that the rain flew sideways. The shutters shook and the ceiling moaned. Lightning flickered and the thunder seemed as though it was coming from inside the house. Dashiell had hired a quartet to play after dinner, one that specialized in tangos. That was out. No one was in the mood.

Leroy went to his room, but not to rest. He couldn’t leave Arabella and her tattered family like it was. He pulled out his case with the crosses and menorah, buffalo skull and painting of the great eagle, the brilliant line that marked the divide between life and death.

Arranging the holy objects where he could see them, Leroy sat cross-legged on the floor before the fireplace and lit his pipe, raising it high and low and to the four directions. Leroy slipped into the world of Power.

“Ballentyne family—Peter and Violetta, Arabella and Allie—come to me, here.” They came, as spirits detached from their bodies. They sat cross-legged around him, looking as they always did, except see-through. “You have been through a great trial and need healing. You have been in contact with a demon and damaged.

“Peter and Violetta, I allow you to understand the errors you have made. You will feel them. I do not heal you.” He smiled. “Mostly because, if I healed you, you’d go to jail. You need to be as crazy as you are now. You will have to find your way out of the maze the way ordinary people do. But know that you will be whole when you have righted yourselves. Young Allie, I remove the taint of the demon from you. I free you to make your own choices and go your way in peace.

“Peter and Violetta, you commanded great wealth and wasted it on things that didn’t matter. You had power and gave it to a false god. You put Arabella and Allie’s lives and souls in danger, and your own.

“You have been stupid, and you will pay for it. I absolve you nothing. I take your personal power, Peter and Violetta. You have no more power. Young Allie, I take your power until you show me you deserve it.

“Arabella, you are the only one strong enough to see the demon as he was. You were the only one brave and smart enough to fight and save yourself and what you had. Arabella, I heal you of fear and damage. I give you all the spiritual power of your family and ancestors back to the dawn of days. You will use that power for good for yourself and all of the world.”

He sat with them a while and told them to leave.

Leroy knew he wouldn’t sleep that night. The day swam in his mind. Monsters and mechanical horses. Laurie’s brave horse killed. Every kind of cop in the world. Lord Ballentyne and his wife totally nuts. What now?

What about Arabella? What about Cass?

Was Cass in his life at all? Since he’d left for Scotland to get ready for the polo game, he’d left two messages on Will Duane’s phone. Will’s phone was the highest tech ever made and backed up many times. He knew his message wasn’t lost. Two months before, Leroy left his first message. He’d said, “I’m going to Scotland for a couple of months to train a polo team. You’ve got my number if you need me. How’s Cass?” Not too friendly, but complete.

Will had screamed at him in a way that no one ever had. Time passed. He sent him another message, reflecting other feelings, which were closer to forgiveness. “We’re playing Lord Ballentyne’s team in an exhibition match right before Christmas. If you’d like to come, let me know. They’ll make up a suite for you. How’s Cass?”

No answer. Will must have seen that afternoon’s TV coverage where Dashiell Pondichury turned into a demon and ran off the field with his robot horses. The broadcasts from every major station had covered the world. That would wake up
anyone.
Will had not called. Leroy’s phone was a monster portable phone with a satellite antenna. He could use it anywhere in the world.

The relationship was dead.

What did he owe Will, aside from the cost of the extravagant trip? He’d looked into Cass’s tormented eyes for seconds and held her unconscious body for a few hours in an ambulance. Was she still alive? She zoomed in on his dreams like a banshee-in-distress, but was she even alive? No one had told him.

Could she be healed? Will had maintained that she couldn’t, which was why Leroy couldn’t see her. Made no sense, but maybe it did. Maybe Cass hadn’t gotten any better. Maybe she was a raving maniac ready to jump into the first addiction she could find? Did he want her if she was incurable?

No.

He wanted his father’s advice. That rascal was taking the Will Duane route. They’d played phone tag for a few weeks, and then Leroy gave up.

“Grandfather?” he prayed. “Could you pay me a little visit like in that hotel in Paris? I need help.” He didn’t think the shaman would come; everyone else deserted him.

His Grandfather obliged. Leroy could see his shadowy outline in front of the fireplace in front of his bed.

“Grandfather, you’re here!”

“Of course I’m here. I love you. And your life is so exciting. I’ve never had a spirit warrior have to choose between an English noblewoman and the daughter of the richest man in the world.” Grandfather would have clapped his back, if he weren’t a specter. “Good job, my grandson.”

Leroy slumped, miserable. “Yeah. Great.”

“Not only did you find
two
of your soul mates, you …”

“Does everyone have more than one?”

The old ghost shrugged. “I don’t know, but the Great One
is
big-heartedness, Leroy. Not stingy at all. Everyone probably has many soul mates. That’s efficient too. The Great One wants soul mates to marry and have children so the world is a better place. What if you had just one? Say one soul mate was in Asia and the other was in South America. How would they ever meet?”

“Then why do people get so excited when they meet their soul mate?”

“They always look in the wrong places. Bars and places like that. They should go to church. Where did you find Cass?”

“She was in a whorehouse. And Arabella was in a giant mansion where they wouldn’t let me in except because I was Will Duane’s …
boy
.

“
Grandfather! What should I do?”

“Arabella is really something, Leroy. Her room is very easy to find. You go back to the main landing, turn left and down the other big hall. Her room is the third on the right. Facing the front of the house.”

“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be helping me.”

“I am. She looks so soft, but she outwitted the demon. Smart. And strong. Doesn’t she look pretty in blue?”

“What are you doing?” Grandfather had disappeared. Shit. His grandpa had gone, leaving his tip of the day: the location of Arabella’s room.

He wanted to hug and kiss her until her hands lost that terrible chill he’d felt and her face returned to its normal sweet self.

But he was afraid of what would happen if he walked into her room. What if he took her in his arms, and laid next to her? What if he saw that fine, pale skin, and her cloud blue eyes up close? If she lifted her lips to him, what would he do? She was his soul mate, as much as Cass, but differently.

Cass, even if she hadn’t been ruined, would never be as sweet and willing as Arabella. Cass would always be a handful like that racehorse he’d ridden on the polo field. Fast, and quick, and exciting.

Arabella would make him happy.

“Arabella?” he knocked at her door. The lady’s maid opened it.

“Her Ladyship is sleeping, sir.”

“I’ll just peek in. I wanted to see that she is all right.”

“Yes, sir.” The maid left.

Arabella’s face made the palest ivory and the most lustrous pearls look coarse. She lay on her back, one hand drawn up by her cheek. Quilts of finest silk, sheets of embroidered cotton covered her to her chin. Her eyelashes were a soft brown next to the glow of her skin. He brushed the fine, pale hair from her forehead with his fingertips. He leaned over and brushed her cheek with his lips. He leaned over and fell in love.

When he lifted his head, her eyes were open. “Leroy.” She couldn’t say more. Her arms pulled him down. She buried her face in his neck, shuddering. “I was so afraid, Leroy. Dash was going to marry me, and they were all going to …”

“But they didn’t, and they never will. I’m here.”

“Leroy, Papa … And Mama … Allie …”

“I’ve helped them, ‘Bella, as much as I can.”

“Please, don’t leave. I think I’d die if you left.” A hand shot out and drew him closer. He could feel her soft breath on his face and neck. She didn’t smell like anything, except sweetness. His lips drifted downward. He drifted downward, until he was lying next to her on the bed. She was kind and sweet, with a soft chubbiness that wasn’t quite fashionable, but he loved.

Fire ran through him, through her, all over them. Soul mates. She grabbed him, plastering her body against him. He could feel her breasts, soft hips, the roundness of her. She seemed to be suspended in the air. She pulled his face to her and kissed him, holding the back of his head.

He responded like a bass to an expertly fished Zara Spook lure. Leroy’s mouth grabbed hers and held on. She kept touching and petting, with both hands. Leroy was on a losing course.

She moaned, moving without guile. “Oh, Leroy, I want something …” She didn’t know any more than he did what she wanted.

“Me too, ‘Bella.” His spirit warrior’s virginity was going to be lost in the bed of a beautiful English noblewoman and he didn’t care.

And why should he? He felt something real and true for her, the soul energy that would bond them for a lifetime. She was lovely and had a title. She still had her money. He didn’t care about that, but he had some ideas about what they could do. They could make this place a better hotel that Le Meurice. Leroy stopped fighting her and began kissing and touching in earnest.

Cass’s eyes burst into his mind, wild, and frantic. She needed him desperately. Leroy couldn’t stop. He fought with himself. Fumbling and mumbling, he dragged himself from Arabella’s arms. “I’m so sorry, ‘Bella. I can’t.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to force myself on you. I’ve never behaved like this, but …” She frowned, studying him and realizing she wasn’t the problem. “There’s someone else?”

“Yes.”

“Who?” Pale fire lit her eyes.

“Cass Duane.”

Her eyes widened in horror. “
Really
?”

“Yes.”

Arabella pulled away. “Oh, Leroy, you can’t be interested in her. She’s awful. Is that why Will’s giving you this trip? So you’ll marry her?”

“There’s not enough money in the world to force me to marry someone I don’t love. We’re soul mates.” He wanted to shut up, but couldn’t. “Just like you ‘n’ me are soul mates. I’ve got to leave.” He spun and left the room.